Category Science & Technology

UW law professor offers look at FDA from the inside out

March 8, 2012

UW Law Professor R. Alta Charo was senior policy adviser to the commissioner at the Food and Drug Administration from August 2009 until June 2011. Now back on campus, Charo spoke reflects on her time with the FDA. Read More

Office of Sustainability launches at UW–Madison

March 7, 2012

The UW–Madison Office of Sustainability, which grew out of the campuswide Sustainability Initiative, will officially launch on Friday, March 9, with an event at the Wisconsin Institutes for Discovery. Read More

Wisconsin Institutes for Discovery named 2012 Laboratory of the Year

March 5, 2012

The Wisconsin Institutes for Discovery, the innovative 330,000-sqaure-foot public-private facility that opened just more than a year ago on the UW–Madison campus, has been named the 2012 Laboratory of the Year. Read More

In new book, leading neuroscientist describes your brain on emotion

March 5, 2012

Building on more than 30 years of cutting-edge brain research, a new book by UW–Madison psychology and psychiatry professor Richard J. Davidson offers an inside look into how emotions are coded in our brains and our power to control them. Read More

Nelson Institute awarded UW–Madison’s first S-STEM grant from NSF

March 2, 2012

The Nelson Institute for Environmental Studies has been awarded UW–Madison's first-ever National Science Foundation S-STEM grant for undergraduate scholarships in Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM). Read More

Communicating danger across 10,000 years

March 1, 2012

Giant symbols carved into canyon walls might tell the story of a long-ago hunt, a creation myth, or a genocide - but because the cultures who created rock art have vanished, there is no way of discerning their exact meaning. Read More

Daya Bay antineutrino detectors exceed performance goals

February 29, 2012

After just three months of operation, the Daya Bay Reactor Neutrino Experiment has far surpassed expectations, recording tens of thousands of particle interactions and paving the way to a better understanding of neutrinos and why the universe is built of matter rather than antimatter. Read More

See restored Curry murals at Wednesday Night @ the Lab

February 28, 2012

A remarkable University of Wisconsin–Madison research triumph and artful renderings depicting the importance of biochemistry are the subject of a rare occurrence of the popular Wednesday Night @ the Lab series. Read More

Exploring interfaces between science, humanities

February 23, 2012

The semester-long, $2,500 Emerging Interfaces Awards were created as a way to explore the different ways thinkers in the humanities and sciences approach discovery. Read More

Surprising diversity at a synapse hints at complex diversity of neural circuitry

February 22, 2012

A new study reveals a dazzling degree of biological diversity in an unexpected place - a single neural connection in the body wall of flies. Read More

Two UW–Madison researchers awarded prestigious Sloan Fellowships

February 22, 2012

Two members of the University of Wisconsin–Madison faculty are among 126 scientists from around the country who have been awarded prestigious Alfred P. Sloan Research Fellowships. Read More

Early spring: Good for us, mixed bag for insects, plants

February 21, 2012

Madison’s warm weather may have made the outdoors more comfortable for people, but does it spell trouble for overwintering plants and bugs? Read More

Journal boycott gaining steam at UW–Madison

February 21, 2012

They are mad as hell, and not going to take it anymore. That describes an emerging response from more than 6,000 scientists to Elsevier, publisher of more than 2,500 scientific journals, including Cell and The Lancet. Read More

Recent sightings: Wonders of Physics

February 20, 2012

Physics student Blaine Law (right) uses the pressure of liquid nitrogen changing from a liquid to a gas to power a canon during a… Read More

Does history repeat? Using the past to improve ecological forecasting

February 20, 2012

To better predict the future, Jack Williams is looking to the past. Read More

Proposed hunt poorly designed, says UW wolf expert

February 20, 2012

Legislation outlining a proposed state wolf hunt is likely to hurt wolf populations while failing to resolve existing conflicts with humans, says a UW–Madison wolf… Read More

Mother of pearl tells a tale of ocean temperature, depth

February 16, 2012

Nacre -- or mother of pearl, scientists and artisans know, is one of nature's amazing utilitarian materials. Read More

Howard Zimmerman, pioneer in organic chemistry, dies at 85

February 16, 2012

Howard Zimmerman, a professor of chemistry from 1960 until his retirement in 2010, died on Saturday, Feb. 11 as a result of a fall. Read More

Arboretum director to return to teaching

February 16, 2012

Kevin McSweeney, a University of Wisconsin–Madison soil scientist who has directed the university's internationally famous Arboretum since 2004, announced this week that he is relinquishing that administrative post and returning to the faculty. Read More

UW–Madison names finalists for Nelson Institute director

February 14, 2012

UW-Madison has named three finalists for the director of the Nelson Institute for Environmental Studies. Read More